Popular social networking website Facebook and its sub-services including WhatsApp and Instagram have been facing a service outage for a few hours in several regions. Hashtags labelled #WhatsAppDown, #InstagramDown and #FacebookDown have been trending on the microblogging website Twitter. 

While the cause of the outage hasn’t been revealed, it was speculated to be a DDoS style attack. The aforementioned attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic to a web property where multiple compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan computer virus, are used to target a single computer system. However, a post shared on [...]

Facebook was one of the first globally accepted social media platforms. It is a platform that combines a wide variety of social medias ranging from simple messaging to photo and video sharing. But with passing time, social media is evolving and changing. Niche specific apps are on the rise, like chat focused WhatApp and photo sharing app Instagram. Both of which Facebook acquired for $ 19 billion and $ 1 billion respectively. A new social media segment that has seen phenomenal growth in recent times is video/lip syncing applications. China based TikTok is the current leader in this segment. To get a slice of this rapidly booming sector, Facebook has launched their Lasso [...]

Ever had moments when you sent a message to your friend or your ex and regretted it? Well, we all have. Facebook messenger is going to fix that for you with it’s new unsend feature. You will now get a window of 10 minutes to delete your message. This feature has been written about in the “coming soon” section in the release notes of Messenger on iOS. The note states that if someone has accidentally sent the wrong photo, incorrect information or message in the wrong thread, they can delete the message in the next ten minutes. WhatsApp also has a similar feature but the message can be deleted in a time frame of an hour and also has to be an unread message. Even though the 10 [...]

Facebook, the social network which bought the messaging service, WhatsApp back in February 2014, has been updating the platform. The new beta update for the app brings stickers to its users. Though the WhatsApp beta version has been around for a while, Facebook has never tested this feature for the app before. There are many other messaging platforms which have already embraced this concept. It will be the first time that WhatsApp will introduce stickers to its users.

The new WhatsApp beta update will bring a lot of interesting sticker packs. A Twitter post shows two sticker packs, Unchi & Rollie and Bibimbap Friends.

WhatsApp beta for Android [...]

Facebook, over the past few months, has been in muddy waters when it comes to user data privacy. Ever since the Cambridge Analytica controversy broke out, Facebook has been in the middle of a heated debate surrounding the internet and how brands use data of users. Since then, Facebook has come out and defended its stance while claiming that it doesn’t spy on its users. While that might be true for now, the future might be different.

A new patent owned by Facebook has been discovered by Metro. The patent essentially details technology that triggers the microphone of a smartphone to start recording ambient audio. Some form of data based on that recording is then sent back [...]

Blackberry is not doing so well, proof of that is the fact that WhatsApp and Facebook are officially killing App support for the platform. Previously known as RIM, Blackberry has not seen a good record in the past few years. With almost all their devices not doing well, either due to price or specifications.

The news which is about a month old has left Blackberry in disappointment. The apps are supposed to end their support end of 2016 leaving any Blackberry users fending for themselves, as no more updates will be available post that. However, devices like the company’s Priv, that work on Android will not be a part of this end of service, and will continue to enjoy [...]

The Telecom Regulatory Athority of India (TRAI), today has announced final guidelines on differential pricing. Ruling heavily in favour of Net Neutrality, TRAI has said, ” No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content”

The telecom sector regulator with this ruling has barred differential pricing of data products, which effectively will mean that controversial zero-rating ideas such as Facebook’s Free Basics won’t be allowed to kick-off in the country.

TRAI also looks increasingly likely to disallow subsidised data packages already on offer which allow services, such as Whatsapp or [...]

Facebook, like smoking or drinking, can be regarded as an addiction for the digital age. Well, maybe not as harmful to the body as the latter, but according to a study conducted by the Happiness Research Institute (yes, it’s a real place), Facebook can be quite harmful, mentally.

A study was conducted by the Happiness Research Institute on 1,095 Facebook users in Denmark to see how the social media might be affecting their mood. The researchers first discovered that over 94% of the participants visited Facebook on a daily basis.

The subjects were them split into two groups – one group continued their daily use of Facebook while the other were made to stay [...]

It comes as no surprise really that WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in India, according to reports by global research consultancy firm TNS. Facebook remains the most popular social networking site in India with 51% of users logging in daily, while 56% users are on WhatsApp daily.

“The social networking market of India is Facebook centric, which is fueling the adoption of Facebook Messenger also as the IM platform for private messaging. However, WhatsApp is by far the most popular IM platform in India.” TNS India executive director Parijat Chakraborty commented.

When compared to countries such as Thailand (78%), Taiwan (75%), and Hong Kong (72%), [...]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Silicon Valley has already created quite a buzz on social media platforms. While the likes of Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook have expressed their support for Digital India on Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg wanted to express his support by displaying it to the world on his home turf, and by that we mean Facebook. On Sunday, Zuckerberg changed his profile picture ahead of his Townhall interaction with the PM. The new profile picture has his own display picture with the Indian tricolour overlaying it.

I changed my profile picture to support Digital India, the Indian government’s effort to connect rural communities [...]

Facebook is realising the kind of social impact it can have in today’s society and has made a statement, following the launch of a “Donate” button:

“Every day, people use Facebook to raise awareness and show support for causes they care about and to motivate others to do the same, we’re inspired by how much good comes from these connections, so we’ve added a ‘Donate Now’ call-to-action on Pages and link ads to make those connections easier than ever.”

Facebook is therefore, launching a “Donate” button for all non-profit organizations to use on their Facebook Pages.However, this isn’t the first [...]